The World Poker Tour has a lot of empty space on the 2022 calendar, both for the main tour and WPT Prime. Though we know that announcements are forthcoming, it is nice to have two announcements in the past week to provide some excitement.
The most recent news added a stop to the World Poker Tours main tour. It’s the WPT Venetian in July in Las Vegas, just before the 2022 World Series of Poker ends and a couple weeks before the Venetian DeepStack Championship ends. It adds a major incentive for players to stick around the Vegas summer of poker a bit longer.
Just a few days prior to this announcement, WPTDeepStacks was wrapping its inaugural and record-breaking trip to Sydney, Australia. It was one of the last of the WPTDS series before its retirement. But the new WPT Prime, which will take its place, added a Star Gold Coast stop. Even better, it will join with the main tour for a WPT Australia Main Event.
Let’s check out the details.
WPT Venetian: July 2022
Remember the time before the pandemic when the World Poker Tour was able to confidently schedule poker tournaments? That time is back.
The WPT events at the Venetian have been successful in the past several years, with prize pools consistently exceeding guarantees. This year, the WPT is setting a guarantee that is much larger than its usual offering.
The WPT Venetian will be a part of the Venetian DeepStack Championship. That series runs May 2 to July 31, which we detailed a few weeks ago. The World Poker Tour will be adding more events to tie the two series together from July 7-17, including two $1,100 buy-ins, a $2,400 buy-in three-day event, and but the primary attraction will be the Main Event:
July 12-17: $5K buy-in WPT Venetian Main Event ($4M GTD)
The buy-in will be higher than the more-common $3,500 buy-in, but the guarantee is also higher. It is not common to find live tournaments with $4M guarantees these days.
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1516467908146196480?s=20&t=-wE3IwCTbpE3LWyyK9uAmw
Venetian Tournament Director Tommy La Rosa commented that the two WPT-branded events held at the Venetian in 2021, as the world emerged from the pandemic, garnered prize pools that exceeded $4M in March and $5M in July.
ClubWPT is offering two chances to win their way to the WPT Venetian. Qualifiers are running this month to award two $7K prize packages.
WPT Prime Australia: June 2022
Since the World Poker Tour first went to Australia in 2019, both the WPT and Aussie players can’t get enough of the combo. One might remember the excitement surrounding the WPT Season XVIII announcement for the first-ever WPT Gold Coast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9BHBJ8_amc&t=80s
The World Poker Tour returned, the most recent trip happening just earlier this month. This time, the WPTDeepStacks festival and WPTDS Main Event took place at the Star Sydney. The $1,500 buy-in Main Event counted 2,023 total entries and built a prize pool of $2,690,590. It became the largest WPTDeepStacks in the series’ history. The entire series was a massive success, complete with a total of 6,392 tournament entries. In total, WPTDS Sydney awarded $6,588,590.
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1513539028372520962?s=20&t=-wE3IwCTbpE3LWyyK9uAmw
Already, the World Poker Tour is planning its next trip. There will be a WPT Prime festival at the Star Gold Coast June 9-20.
As a reminder, the WPTDeepStacks is in the process of a brand retirement. And the new WPT Prime will replace it, though it will keep the same lower buy-in precedent. New features will include action clocks, participation in leaderboard competitions, and livestream coverage. The new WPT Prime schedule will kick off in Vietnam in May and return to Asia for stops in Cambodia in August and Taiwan in November.
Now, there’s an Australia stop thrown in. The WPT Prime Gold Coast festival is set for June 9-20, with a Prime Main Event scheduled for June 16-20. That Main Event will offer a $1,500 buy-in, though more details remain forthcoming.
But wait; there’s more!
The WPT will bring its main tour to the Gold Coast in September. That festival will take place September 15-27, with the $5,400 buy-in WPT Main Event set for September 23-27. More information will follow in the coming months.
Star Gold Coast COO Jessica Mellor commented, “With interstate and international travelers returning to our shores in search of incredible experiences and entertainment, we’re excited to announce the Star Gold Coast will welcome not one, but two major poker events later this year.”
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1514737291675115520?s=20&t=-wE3IwCTbpE3LWyyK9uAmw
